Clockwise from top left: Jakob Dall, Ivan Vdovin/JAI via Corbis, Miguel R. Fernandes for The New York Times, Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times, Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times, Lourdes Segade for The New York Times, Gerard Sioen/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Clockwise from top left: Bakken amusement park, the Basilica of San Vitale, B. Leza, Melilotos, the All-Russian Exhibition Center, Amato Sole, Rumeli fortress. More Photos »
Athens
Kalamiotou Street, at night
It's been three years since Greece became the epicenter of Europe's debt crisis, but you'd hardly know it strolling the center of Athens at night. Eclectic restaurants and crackling night life animate a maze of streets steps from the Acropolis and the Greek Parliament.
Instead of tucking into a heavy taverna dinner, head to Melilotos — 19 Kalamiotou Street, (30-210) 32-22-458 — hidden in the fabric district off Ermou Street. Its family-run kitchen specializes in fusion cuisine, using produce from the Greek islands. Here, Athenians in the know linger over fried Creten feta laced with ouzo and watermelon; a tangerine-infused pasta from Chios Island; and squid-ink tagliatelle flecked with smoked trout.
Around 10:30, the area morphs into a booming bar scene, starting when the Dude bar across the street, a paen to "The Big Lebowski," opens its nondescript doors. Around the corner, facing St. Eirini church, throngs of young Greeks crowd the outdoor tables at Tailor Made — Plateia Agias Eirinis 2, (30-213) 004-9645 — a micro-coffee roaster by day, drinking spot by night, with drinks like the Porn Star Martini, made with passion fruit.
Many Greeks are not spending money on vacation or even gas, but they will pay to nurse a drink for 8 euros (about $10, at $1.26 to the euro) in a lively setting rather than sitting home and moping. If you're in town, you may as well join them. LIZ ALDERMAN
Barcelona, Spain
Amato Sole
In Barcelona, it's all too easy to simply shop the multistory outposts of Zara or Mango. Or to weave through racks of psychedelic-print tunics from the label Custo Barcelona. Or to wander around the sprawling home-design emporium Vinçon.
But those who value craftsmanship over mass-produced goods should make the effort instead to explore the narrow streets in the southern part of the Raval neighborhood. "It's a new part of the Raval that's growing with new shops," said Ramón Solé, a Barcelona native and a co-owner of Amato Sole, a housewares and furniture shop that opened in the area in December 2010.
At Amato Sole (amatosole.com), many of the items for sale, from mirrors fitted within old window frames to wooden chairs inlaid with iron, are handmade in the second-floor studio by Mr. Solé, an industrial designer, and his partner, Annamaria Amato, an architect from Sicily. The couple take a modern, conscientious approach to sourcing their materials, scouring local markets for tattered, broken furniture that they then restore or repurpose to create cool, imaginative pieces with a back story.
Every few months local artists are invited to exhibit works in the shop — a melding of creative genres that transpires as, Mr. Solé said, "the art combines with our furniture."
The couple, who live above the studio, plan to expand their business later this year by opening a second shop and studio space in the Gràcia neighborhood (at Carrer del Perill 39). For a limited time during the expansion they'll open their store by appointment only, so check the Web site. Then snake through Raval and ring their bell to discover this charming (and well-hidden) gem. INGRID K. WILLIAMS
Berlin
Soviet War Memorial/Street Art
From the paint-slathered remnants of the Berlin Wall to Daniel Libeskind's Holocaust memorial, Berlin is awash in historical testament. But one of the city's most fascinating monuments is well off the tourist trail, in the middle of Treptower Park, which runs along the Spree River in the former East Berlin.
Built after World War II to commemorate the thousands of Soviet soldiers who died in the Battle of Berlin, the huge Soviet War Memorial is at once a moving work of midcentury political art and a ludicrous piece of Stalinist pomp. The central axis leads from a statue of a grieving Mother Russia across a long, landscaped plaza to a 70-ton bronze statue of a soldier brandishing a rescued German child and standing triumphantly atop a crushed swastika. Lining the plaza, which is an actual burial plot for some 7,000 Red Army soldiers, are 16 raised stone sarcophagi, each bearing a quote by Stalin and a frieze depicting some act of Soviet heroism. The compositions — machine gun-toting soldiers stacked like sardines, children throwing grenades — are vaguely classical, like social realist tableaus as conceived by a Hellenistic artisan.
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